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The Arcane Awakening #1
The Arcane Awakening is 'X-men meets The Da Vinci Code'. The descendants of ancient angel/human hybrids, or Arcane, long dormant abilities spring to life
52 pages, Perfect Paperback
Published January 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 14, 2018
To say I was disappointed in this comic book would be an understatement. This is really hard for me to say because I usually enjoy all things angel related, but this story was just not good.
The only good thing this story had going for it was the art. It's a black and white comic on the inside with a full-color cover on the outside. The full-color cover is visually appealing, enticing even, and the interior black and white images are done well. They're not phenomenal images but they're good images; if only they had a good story to go with them.
My first issue with this story is the timeline. The description says it's supposed to be some kind of hybrid of ancient angels and historical figures but it doesn't really make sense to me. I feel like, if this writer and artist wanted to tell a story based on Nephilim lore, they could have just done that but instead they tried to create something new and it just didn't work for me. Having these new heroes, these Arcane, be the ancestors to say the Angel Michael and Joan of Arc or some other Angel and some other historical religious figure is just a bit much. It seems really cliche without there being a good reason for it. It felt like they were trying too hard. I mean, what really are the odds that someone would be a descendant of both a well-known angel and some really famous religious figure? And it goes the same for the villains as well. What are the odds that you're going to find someone who would be a direct descendant to Lucifer and Adolf Hitler? Big cliches all around.
Then there's the actual action of the story. Our new heroes decide to announce themselves to the entire world by making an announcement at the Vatican at a press conference. (Is it really easy for people to set up press conferences at the Vatican?) Of course, this press conference somehow gets sabotaged by our villains (which no one saw coming). So, from the very start the bad guys make the good guys seem like the bad guys in the public eye because “people are sheep” (my words, not the writers. I’m making the assumption that the writer wants the reader to believe that people are really easily manipulated because that’s never been done before (sarcasm)).
Next, there are the locations. More cliches. We go straight from the Vatican to Las Vegas AKA Sin City. Whoa didn't see that coming (yes I did). And does this really all boil down to an arena-type fight?
And the final straw that just made me want to rip this book to shreds, is that the one female character in the entire book either gets raped or is almost raped. I really couldn't tell because I was so angry that I stopped reading. I didn't care enough to go back and look at the last page to see what actually happened.
I really wanted to like this comic book, but what can I say, I just didn't like it. This book is probably perfect for someone else but not for me. I'm trying really hard not to give into stereotypes, but I think the ideal reader for this comic might be a middle-aged conservative man who likes to watch a lot of violent movies and TV shows.
In all honesty, I can almost guarantee that there are people who will like this book, but I don’t. There was so much potential here... I just don’t like this story.
The only good thing this story had going for it was the art. It's a black and white comic on the inside with a full-color cover on the outside. The full-color cover is visually appealing, enticing even, and the interior black and white images are done well. They're not phenomenal images but they're good images; if only they had a good story to go with them.
My first issue with this story is the timeline. The description says it's supposed to be some kind of hybrid of ancient angels and historical figures but it doesn't really make sense to me. I feel like, if this writer and artist wanted to tell a story based on Nephilim lore, they could have just done that but instead they tried to create something new and it just didn't work for me. Having these new heroes, these Arcane, be the ancestors to say the Angel Michael and Joan of Arc or some other Angel and some other historical religious figure is just a bit much. It seems really cliche without there being a good reason for it. It felt like they were trying too hard. I mean, what really are the odds that someone would be a descendant of both a well-known angel and some really famous religious figure? And it goes the same for the villains as well. What are the odds that you're going to find someone who would be a direct descendant to Lucifer and Adolf Hitler? Big cliches all around.
Then there's the actual action of the story. Our new heroes decide to announce themselves to the entire world by making an announcement at the Vatican at a press conference. (Is it really easy for people to set up press conferences at the Vatican?) Of course, this press conference somehow gets sabotaged by our villains (which no one saw coming). So, from the very start the bad guys make the good guys seem like the bad guys in the public eye because “people are sheep” (my words, not the writers. I’m making the assumption that the writer wants the reader to believe that people are really easily manipulated because that’s never been done before (sarcasm)).
Next, there are the locations. More cliches. We go straight from the Vatican to Las Vegas AKA Sin City. Whoa didn't see that coming (yes I did). And does this really all boil down to an arena-type fight?
And the final straw that just made me want to rip this book to shreds, is that the one female character in the entire book either gets raped or is almost raped. I really couldn't tell because I was so angry that I stopped reading. I didn't care enough to go back and look at the last page to see what actually happened.
I really wanted to like this comic book, but what can I say, I just didn't like it. This book is probably perfect for someone else but not for me. I'm trying really hard not to give into stereotypes, but I think the ideal reader for this comic might be a middle-aged conservative man who likes to watch a lot of violent movies and TV shows.
In all honesty, I can almost guarantee that there are people who will like this book, but I don’t. There was so much potential here... I just don’t like this story.
February 14, 2021
Although I enjoyed the art and general premise of this comic, it ended up falling flat as far as the writing and plot. It was very rushed,stereotypical, and also fell into almost every trope. Also definitely not a great representation for women in this book. Their “main” female character is a pretty poor one.
December 27, 2019
The story was a bit hard to follow because it jumped back and forth constantly and the black and white made it harder to keep track of which group was the focus. It was so rushed that the story had no time for character development. I think this would be better if it was a longer graphic novel.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews